Shirley Thomas, Mary Hunt and Mildred Pratchett formed The Tonettes and
put out two sides on the Stax/Volt label. The Trio recorded enough material to
fill four more 45s, but they caught an unexpected break when Nashville label
Sound Stage 7 needed a black female group to go out as The Dixie Belles (Dixiebelles)
to promote a studio-created Hot 100 hit called “Down At Papa Joe’s”.

They returned to the Volt roster in late 1966 as The Charmels (and, on
their final Volt 45, The Charmells). When The Tonettes went back to Stax
Records, it was a move that Shirley Thomas decided not to make. Isaac Hayes, a
proven hitmaker at Stax at the time, took the band under his wings, to make the
transition to The Charmels. Hayes replaced Thomas with baritone Eula Jean
Rivers, leaving Mary Hunt to take the soprano role and Mildred Pratchett the
alto.

Whilst listening to the trio, in the studio, Hayes decided they needed a
strong lead voice to complete the ensemble. One night while watching an embryonic version of The Bar-Kays at the
Hippodrome, he heard a female singer named Barbara McCoy sit in with the group.
After the show Hayes approached McCoy and said “I got this group and they need
a lead singer. Are you interested in professional recording?” He then told her
to come down to the studio the next day. There she auditioned on “Walk On By”
which, of course, was the song that in a couple of years would catapult Hayes
to fame as a solo singer. Barbara McCoy was installed as lead singer and the
fourth member of The Charmels. This was the first secular group McCoy had ever
sung with. and she was understandably very nervous. She would often insist that
the studio lights be turned down so that she couldn't see anybody on the other
side of the glass when she was recording.

The first song The Charmels recorded for Stax was “Please Uncle Sam”, a
typically Fifth Dimension sounding high ballad.

“They wrote songs specifically
around my voice and they were always sweet and kind of high,” recalled McCoy.
She said the songs were often written casually in the studio while the group
was hanging around the piano eating chicken and drinking Cherry wine. The
Charmels had a total of four forty-fives issued by Volt, none of which saw any
national chart activity.